The fifth round of WorldSSP ended with Kawasaki WorldSSP Team riders Jeremy Alcoba and Dominique Aegerter each taking points in the final 19-lap race at Autodrom Most, although it was something of a bittersweet ending for Alcoba in particular.
At the start of the second race, which was held in dry conditions, Alcoba was on the fourth row of the starting grid, in 12th position, while Aegerter was in 20th place.
Both of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R 636 riders attacked the sinuous 4.212-km-long Czech circuit from the start, with Jeremy riding in the midfield for a time until nearer the end of the race. His good pace and then the retirement of some other riders saw him take an initial sixth-place finish.
He was, however, eventually penalised for two infractions – exceeding track limits on the final lap and not rejoining the track properly from the slip road at T1. Jeremy was thus ranked eighth in the official results, scoring eight championship points, not ten.
Aegerter moved forward strongly enough to end up 12th at the end. He had been 18th on lap one, then 13th on lap 13, before gaining one final place at the conclusion of a very intense Race Two.
In the championship standings, Jeremy is sixth overall, and top Kawasaki rider, while Dominique is 17th. Alcoba has 76 points and Aegerter 25.
The Motorland Aragon Circuit in Spain plays host to the sixth round of WorldSSP this year, with the midpoint of the season being reached between 29-31 May.
Manuel Puccetti
“Alcoba put in a really strong performance today, finishing sixth after recovering well in a difficult race that saw many crashes. Unfortunately, at the end of the race, he was penalized two positions for having broken a questionable rule, but this doesn’t take away from his excellent performance. Aegerter gritted his teeth and did well to climb from twentieth at the start to final twelfth place, scoring points in the process.”
Jeremy Alcoba
“I was happy with today’s lap times and pace, so we made a big step from Race One. Yesterday, I struggled to 1’35-low lap times, but the pace today was 1’35 or 1’34.5, so the team did a really good job because they understood what I needed to make this step forward. They gave me a better bike set-up so I could ride more easily. We had the speed today, even if in some parts we struggled more than them. But I put in all the effort to fight with them – I enjoyed it – and I won the fight inside the second group. We were closer today than yesterday to the first group, so I am really happy with how we ended the weekend here.”
Dominique Aegerter
“In Race Two, we could finish in the points, and starting from 20th position, this was not easy, for sure. I think we worked very hard and tried to understand the bike better. I think we succeeded in this, but we still need more kilometres and need to find what I like a bit more. We made a step from yesterday, but the most important thing is to start out better on Friday and be closer to the front, so that we can start much closer to the front in the races. We know the areas we need to work in.”
